Words
by bechloemygreys
Summary: Beca'a speech issues cause her to close herself off and be distant from people. Can Chloe help her open up and find herself?


Beca walked up to the front of Barden High School and stared at it with anxiety and fear. This was her first day of high school and she was terrified, to say the least. _Don't embarrass yourself, don't screw this up_ , she kept repeating to herself. She took a deep breath and stepped inside the school, finding her locker fairly quickly and going to her first class. She sat down in the back and put her headphones on. "Beca?" The teacher asked.

She looked up and pulled her headphones off her ears.

"Hi honey, I'm Mrs. Collins," the woman smiled.

Beca smiled and nodded.

"Your dad mentioned you have some speech issues, so I won't call on you unless you raise your hand, okay?"

She nodded again.

"And you're a half hour early yet, did you find your senior buddy?"

 _What?_ She thought to herself. _What senior buddies?_

Mrs. Collins must have seen the confused look on Beca's face because she decided to speak again. "I'll take you to find yours. I think I saw you have Chloe. She's really sweet and caring, I think you'll like her."

Beca stood up and followed her teacher to the gym, where all the seniors were meeting their buddies. She walked the brunette up to a redhead with bright blue eyes and smiled. "Chloe, this is Beca."

Beca offered an awkward wave to the redhead and Mrs. Collins smiled. "Chloe can I actually have a word with you for a minute?"

"Yeah, what's up?" Chloe asked as Mrs. Collins pulled her away from Beca.

"Beca has some speech issues, so she probably won't talk to you, I just wanted to give you a heads up."

"Oh ok, is it a hearing thing? Or just her speech?"

"Her hearing's fine, Her father just said she has a really bad stutter, and she was bullied a lot for it, so she doesn't talk."

"Oh my gosh that's so sad, I'll definitely keep that in mind," Chloe said reassuringly.

Mrs. Collins smiled and walked off, leaving Chloe to walk back to Beca by herself. "Hi!" The redhead said happily as she approached the brunette. "Did you bring your schedule with you? Or is it in your locker?"

Beca shook her head and pointed upstairs to her locker.

"Alright, we'll go get it then," Chloe said. She and Beca went upstairs and Beca opened her locker. She handed her schedule to Chloe and awkwardly stared at her shoes until the redhead got her attention. "I'm gonna take you to all of your classes to show you where they are, so I'll just leave early from mine to pick you up from yours." She finally really looked at the brunette and a smile appeared on her face. Beca was really beautiful, and even though she hadn't said a word to Chloe yet, she knew there was some depth to her, and that she was really smart and probably a really great friend. "So for the next 20 minutes, I'm supposed to just get to know you, but I know talking is difficult and I don't want you to feel uncomfortable or-"

"C-ca-can w-we wr-wri-te...p-pay-per?" Beca stuttered out, already wanting to crawl under a rock and die.

"That's a great idea!" Chloe said. "I'll take you to the library. Do you like to read?"

Beca nodded and smiled.

"You have a really nice smile," Chloe replied.

Beca nodded, as if to say thank you, and she knew Chloe understood. Chloe opened the doors to the library and they went inside and sat down at the table. "So how do you want to do this? Should we both write or just you?" Chloe asked.

 _Just me_ , Beca wrote on the paper. _I'm really sorry, I'm so embarrassed._

"Don't be, it's not a big deal," Chloe shrugged. "So tell me about yourself."

 _Like what?_

"I don't know, things like your birthday, favorite food or color."

 _My birthday was in April. I was held back last year because of my speech. My favorite food is Taco Bell, and black is my favorite color._

"They held you back for your speech? Oh my gosh that's awful," Chloe said.

Beca nodded. _What about you? What do you like?_

I love to read and write, I love photography and music and-"

"I-I l-lov-ve m-mus-ic to-too!" Beca said out loud.

"Do you sing?" Chloe asked.

Beca nodded. "P-pi-a-no a-nd-" she switched to paper to finish what she was trying to say. _Guitar_.

"Me too! I'm learning guitar but I've played piano since I was 3. And I sing a ton."

Beca smiled and nodded eagerly. She really wanted to sing with Chloe sometime to maybe show her she was a normal person.

"Do you like coffee?" Chloe asked.

"Y-yes," Beca replied with a smile.

"Do you want to go for some after school?"

Beca nodded and smiled at the redhead.

"Ok cool! There's this place about a 5 minute walk from here and I always go there to write, it's just really calm, it's my happy place."

Beca smiled. "W-wh-at do-do y-you wr-rite ab-out?"

"It depends, sometimes I just write journal entries, but I write stories too," Chloe shrugged.

"Ca-can I re-read th-them?" Beca asked. She was beginning to get more and more nervous and embarrassed about her stutter and decided to switch back to paper.

"The stories? Sure!" Chloe said.

 _Ok cool!_ Beca wrote down.

"You don't need to be embarrassed about your stutter, I don't mind, really," Chloe said with a sincere smile.

Beca nodded with a shrug.

"What made you stop talking?" Chloe asked gently.

"We-ell I-I-" Beca was interrupted by the warning bell. "I-is t-tha-t t-the be-ll?"

"Yeah, I'll take you to class," Chloe said with a smile. She and Beca walked to Beca's first class. "Alright, I'll be back here by the time class is over, alright?"

Beca nodded and gave a small smile to Chloe before walking into class.

The day had been long and exhausting for Beca and she was really looking forward to going for coffee with Chloe. Normally, she tried her best to get out of social situations, but Chloe was understanding and calm, and maybe it would be good for her to have a friend who knew her way around and could help her get out of tough situations. She met the redhead outside of school and they started talking towards the coffee shop. "So how did 8th period go?" Chloe asked.

Beca shrugged. "Co-cou-ld I-I t-typ-e?... m-my ph-hone?"

"Type on your phone? Yeah of course!" Chloe said understandingly.

 _It was awful, we had to do bonding games and people are already making fun of me._

"Who are they? I'll tell them to stop," Chloe said.

 _Don't worry about it,_ Beca shrugged again, this time, gently squeezing Chloe's hand as she did so.

"Who did you sit by at lunch?" Chloe asked.

 _I bought a granola bar and a Mountain Dew and I sat in the library reading. I guess they're changing my schedule to replace Spanish with psychology because I can barely speak English, so they don't want to throw me into another language._

"I take psychology too!" Chloe said. "Maybe we'll end up together!"

Beca smiled as they walked into the coffee shop. "C-ca-n yo-you or-"

"Order for you?" Chloe asked and Beca nodded in relief. "Yeah of course, what do you want?"

B-bla-ck co-ff-ee.

"Alright!" Chloe said. She went to go get their drinks and Beca sat down at a table. The redhead came back a few minutes later and handed Beca her coffee. "Does it bother you when I finish what you're saying before you're finished saying it?"

"N-no, I-it-s a r-el-ief." Beca smiled.

"Are you sure? I don't want to embarrass you."

"It-ts fi-ine," Beca said reassuringly. "T-thank y-ou f-or or-der-ring m-my c-coffee."

"No problem," Chloe shrugged.

 _B's are hard for me_ Beca typed and passed her phone to Chloe.

"Can I ask a question?"

Beca nodded.

"Have you had it all your life? And like what is it from?" Chloe asked.

 _I've had it for as long as I can remember, and my speech therapist isn't sure where it's from. All we know is the signals from my brain are somehow slow and scattered when it comes to speech._

"Why don't you like to talk much? Is it difficult or are you just embarrassed?" Chloe asked.

 _It's really exhausting trying to pronounce everything. And I was bullied a lot, so I'd rather just be silent than deal with people judging me._

"You can talk as much as you want to me, I promise I don't mind. Do you stutter when you sing?" The redhead wondered.

"N-no, i-it-s f-f-fro-m a d-dif-if-ere t p-part o-of m-my b-brain," Beca explained.

"Oh so like the left brain and right brain? And singing is on the right?"

Beca nodded again.

"You'll have to sing for me sometime," Chloe replied. "Tell me about your family?"

"M-my d-dad m-m-marr-ied my s-tep mom l-last y-year a-nd I h-have a s-tep s-sis-ter w-ho's ele-ven," Beca replied.

"How is it having a little sister?" Chloe asked. "I have 2 little brothers who are fourteen and eleven."

"I-it's f-fine, sh-she's real-ly un-understanding o-of m-my stut-ter. M-my s-stepmom I-isn't."

"She's not? I'm sorry," Chloe said sadly.

"S-she t-tells m-e t-to r-read t-things out l-loud an-and c-calls m-me re-retarded a-and s-stuff like th-that."

"That's awful, oh my gosh," Chloe said sadly. "Seriously Beca, if you ever need anything, I'm here for you, I want to be your friend."

"Really?" Beca managed to ask smoothly.

"Of course," Chloe said. "In case you haven't noticed, I don't really have any friends."

"W-why?" Beca asked.

"I don't really like to go out a ton, I'd rather sit here and write, and my friends got annoyed and told me they didn't want me to talk to them anymore," Chloe shrugged. "I don't really mind honestly, I'm more of an introvert."

"Y-you're so f-friendly t-though," Beca said.

"It's easy with you," Chloe shrugged. "I really appreciate you hanging out with me though, I know it's probably really hard for you to open up to people but I promise I'm always going to be here for you."

"Thanks," Beca smiled. "I a-actually h-have t-to g-get go-going, I h-have g-guitar les-lessons."

"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow!" Chloe said standing up and giving the younger girl a hug. "Your voice is beautiful, I'm so glad you decided share it with me."

Beca nodded and smiled. "S-see you tom-tomorrow."

Chloe sat back down and put on her music, quickly zoning out thinking about Beca. The younger girl was smart, kind, beautiful, and talented, and all that was on her mind was finding a way to get Beca to open up to her more.


End file.
